Back In Time

By DOUG McDONOUGH Herald Editor

Published 9:06 am, Tuesday, February 4, 2014

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Feb. 5, 1944: The War Department on Friday announced the award of decorations to Staff Sgt. Ray T. Hamilton, Route 1, Plainview and 34 other officers and enlisted men of the U.S. Army Air Force for outstanding action against the Japanese. Hamilton received the air medal for meritorious achievement in aerial flight on Sept. 27, 1943, during the first low level bombing mission in medium bombardment planes in the China theater. The mission targeted a Japanese tanker in Tongking Bay, which was severely damaged and likely sunk.

•Staff Sgt. Henry Hand, crew chief of a P-47, who is stationed at Bruning, Neb., Air Field, plans to leave Sunday for his post after a week’s furlough visiting friends and relatives here. His sister, T/4 Lorraine Hand of the WAC, is expected home Saturday from Boling Field, Washington, D.C., where she is in the radio section of the Signal Corps.

Feb. 5, 1954: The House Post Office Committee has voted to raise the cost of mailing first class letters from 3 cents to 4 cents. The action is expected to raise an additional $150 million in revenue annually.

•A hole sawed in the roof of Martin’s Department Store, 725 Broadway, last night give burglars access to take about $200 from the store’s cash register. Police Chief Hoyt Curry thinks the thieves likely went through a second floor window at the Skaggs Building and walked almost a block across roofs to reach Martin’s. Assistant Manager John A. Buchanan discovered the burglary.

•Wendell Smith, division engineer for Southwestern Public Service in Plainview, was elected chairman of the Hale County Citizens Traffic Commission at a breakfast meeting today at the Hilton Hotel. He succeeds local auto dealer T.C. Shepard.

Feb. 5, 1964: Mrs. Ivan E. Wimp, Kress, has returned from Wichita, Kan, where she helped her mother, Mrs. Louis Gerteis, move to a private nursing home. She also visited her brother, Jerry Gerteis and family.

•Boy Scout and Cub Scout charters for Troop and Pack 253 will be presented to the Seth Ward Baptist Church during morning services on Sunday by Glenn O’Neal;, district scout executive. Spencer McCartie is scoutmaster and Lyndon Gaithwright is cubmaster.

•University of Texas junior Randy Lightfoot of Plainview won the 60-year high hurdles at the Southwest Conference’s first Indoor Track and Field Championships. Another Plainviewan, Rice junior Zoe Simpson, was upset in the 60-yard dash as he and Overton Spense of Texas timed 6.2 while SMU’s Gene Pouncey hit the wire at 6.1. Baylor sophomore Tim Son of Plainview was third in the 600 in 1:12.8 with Texas’ Rudolph Griffith winning in 1:12.3.

•Bill Sylvester of Plainview, president of the Hale County Farm Bureau, recently attended the third annual conference for newly elected county Farm Bureau presidents, held in Waco. While there he met Texas Farm Bureau President J.T. Woodson of Gober.